In the last ten years, fully electric sports cars have arrived on the scene and begun to win hearts. And new electric sports cars, like the next-generation Tesla Roadster, are on the horizon promising even more. So it’s a good time to ask: How will the sports car industry as a whole be impacted by this trend?
As an industry segment, sports cars and their fans have begun gradually letting these new electric sports cars join the club. The outstanding performance of electric motors, and the process of generational change as younger demographics age into their prime buying power, are cementing these trends. As we get further into the 2020s, and more electric cars come onto the market, this is going to become increasingly apparent.
However, fully electric sports cars are not going to replace traditional sports cars. Not by a long shot! That’s because sports cars, by their very nature, are status symbols. They’re meant to turn heads. They’re engineered and fine-tuned for over-the-top performance. And a lot of the fun of having a sports car comes down to the engine: being able to tweak the engine in your garage and building a close relationship with the engine when you’re on the road.
The internal combustion engine, especially at the level of power and precision of a sports car, is a thing of beauty. It is arguably one of humanity’s most impressive and important mechanical inventions. Anybody who has taken a car engine apart and put it back together can tell you how amazing it is that all these intricate parts work together in such harmony to transform what is literally a controlled explosion into a thrilling form of locomotion.
In contrast, fully electric sports cars don’t even have an engine. All of that complexity and subtlety just isn’t there. This means the internal combustion engine has an appeal that new electric sports cars can’t match. And anyone who loves working on a beautiful old muscle car, or loves the sound and smell and raw power of a combustion engine, is not going to be drawn away from that by the new electric sports cars on the horizon.